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Beth LaBouyer - From Nurse to Admin: Succeeding in Business
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Beth LaBouyer - From Nurse to Admin: Succeeding in Business
Episode Notes:
You know how to run an OR, but how about running an ASC? In our world, it's common for someone with a clinical background to get promoted to an Admin or CEO and be expected to now run the day-to-day business. Beth LaBouyer, the Executive Director of CASA, shares her own experience and breaks down five tips to make your transition from clinical to business a success.
In our news recap, we'll cover Google’s new Medical Imaging Suite, this year’s flu season, Newsweek’s latest report on America's Best Ambulatory Surgery Centers, and a new documentary called The Strength to Heal.
Articles Mentioned:
Google launches suite of digital tools around medical images
Flu off to an early start as CDC warns about potentially severe season
America's Best Ambulatory Surgery Centers 2023
Lehigh Valley Health Network's The Strength to Heal
Brought to you by HST Pathways.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Format
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to This Week in Surgery Centers. If you're in the ASC industry, then you're in the right place. Every week, we'll start the episode off by sharing an interesting conversation we had with our featured guests, and then we'll close the episode by recapping the latest news impacting surgery centers. We're excited to share with you what we have, so let's get started and see what the industry's been up to.
00:00:27
Speaker
Hi, everyone. Here's what you can expect on today's episode.
Interview with Beth Laboyer
00:00:31
Speaker
Our host, Nick Latz, sits down with Beth Laboyer, who is the executive director of the California Ambulatory Surgery Association. Beth joins us today to share tips for those who have been promoted to ASC administrators that have a clinical background and can run an OR but might not be sure where to start when it comes to running a business, staying on top of regulations, properly staffing, and everything in between.
00:00:57
Speaker
We'll close the episode with a few news stories. We'll start with a recap of Google's new AI solution called Medical Imaging Suite, share a little insight into what the CDC is saying about this year's flu season, talk about Newsweek's latest report on America's best ambulatory surgery centers, and of course, end the new segment with a positive story about a new documentary called The Strength to Heal. Hope everyone enjoys the episode and here's what's going on this week in surgery centers.
00:01:32
Speaker
Welcome to the show. Thanks, Nick. So nice to be here. Really appreciate it. Beth, if you don't mind, can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself? How long have you been with the CASA organization? And what's your role there? Sure. So yes, I am the executive director of CASA. We're formerly known as the California Ambulatory Surgery Association. And gosh, I've been in that role since 2004, which is kind of hard to believe. I can't believe so much time has passed.
00:02:02
Speaker
My role there is basically to implement the strategic plan for the board and help our members succeed as ASCs in California. And that involves some advocacy and developing relationships with the regulatory bodies. I'm making sure they know who ASCs are and that what we're doing for their communities with healthcare and driving down the cost of care
00:02:32
Speaker
A lot of it has to do with education because there's so much changing with surgery centers and so much, you know, that ASCs need to keep current with. So I don't develop a lot of education programs. And, you know, lastly is kind of being a lifeline to our members. So if they have a question or need assistance with something, they know that they can reach out to me and the CASA team and we'll get back with them as quickly as possible.
00:03:00
Speaker
and try to give them an answer. And if we don't know it, we'll find others that do know the answer for them. So they can, like I said, be the best they can be in their surgery centers. Fantastic. I know so many surgery centers in our area and community have gotten so much value from your organization over the years. And I want to touch on a little bit, Beth, as well, your background prior to
00:03:27
Speaker
Casa, can you talk a little bit about your experience and career prior to Casa? So I'm a registered nurse and gosh, I started out in labor and delivery. And in that role, I learned to circulate and scrub C sections. So it was kind of a natural transition for me to go to the hospital, hospital surgical department. So I spent years there and worked in multiple
00:03:52
Speaker
specialties, both scrubbing and circulating, and ended up doing a little management and became a certified nurse, a perioperative nurse, so CNOR. And then, gosh, I took a role as the clinical director for a local ASC in our area and felt very comfortable with that role, running the OR and the pre-op and the recovery.
00:04:21
Speaker
But I swear within a week, the business office manager left. And it felt like it was the next week. I'm sure it wasn't this quick, but the administrator left. And next thing I knew, I was in charge of all of the different operations of the surgery center, not just the clinical operations. And I quickly felt like, gosh, you know, a fish out of water, so much I needed to know.
00:04:46
Speaker
And just great timing. I attended a CASA conference shortly thereafter. And at that time, CASA was all volunteer. And I was just amazed. They took me in, all of the members there and the contacts. And here I was, you know, needing to learn so much. And they just really helped me.
00:05:15
Speaker
It was a true lifeline for me. And, you know, I could pick up the phone and call them and email and just I kept learning and learning. And I, of course, became involved with the association as a volunteer. And it just really taught me the value of being a part of that community and being a part of the state association. And then, gosh, CASA grew.
00:05:43
Speaker
and they wanted to bring up some paid staff. And I was having some life changes. It was very part-time when I took this position, but I ended up being the executive director of CASA part-time. And then now it's full-time and we're just like going gangbusters. That's cool to hear how your career kind of came full circle
00:06:10
Speaker
through kind of the ranks at the surgery center and into the cost organization and help fuel the organization's growth that you mentioned.
Transitioning to ASC Administration
00:06:19
Speaker
I want to touch on one aspect of your background that you mentioned that I think will pertain to several of our listeners around a clinical background in a surgery center environment in transitioning into more of the business side and the administrative side because it seems
00:06:36
Speaker
Seems like that is fairly common for nurses and clinical folks to make that transition. What was it like to make that transition at that time? Did you feel well-prepared or is it one of those drinking from a fire hose type? Wow, you know what? Drinking from a fire hose is a great example. I felt like I was the only one that had
00:07:06
Speaker
gone this pathway. And I think that's part of being my experience with CASA. I learned that I wasn't the only one that, you know, have this transition. In fact, it's more common than not. And I mean, kind of interesting is I just got off the phone with somebody who 20 years nursing experience and all of that, they're running a surgery center and, you know, all of their concerns and feeling uncomfortable and, and, and, um,
00:07:36
Speaker
needing to know so much. And I was like, well, that's interesting. I'm talking about that today. And here, here we are. You know, I just, I literally just hung up the phone. And so you would think, I mean, in all this time that's passed that we would have, you know, more preparation or a different pathway. But I think it's just how it works. You're, you know, a good clinical leader. And next thing you know that you're taking on more of these operations and more of these responsibilities.
00:08:06
Speaker
Yeah, sounds a little bit like trial by fire. And I'm interested in that kind of training and education piece and you reference that you leverage the CASA organization at that time. Maybe tell me a little bit about what kind of training and resourcing and networking was available when you made the transition and maybe contrast to that to what you see available now.
00:08:30
Speaker
Is there a difference in education and experience that's out there? I think there are a few more resources and certainly the industry has grown that there, you know, you have more opportunities, but there still is the same need. So when you're coming from, you know, a clinical background, you've got, I mean, more than often, you know, you're really experienced with the OR.
00:08:58
Speaker
And boy, you know how to run the operating room. You know who's the strong people to put in specialties to make that case, that room go great for the day and how to manage acute patient acuity and the schedule and pre-op and recovery room. But when you get to the surgery center, you, and particularly if you're coming from an inpatient environment, you have all these responsibilities that
00:09:25
Speaker
you just that you might have resources for in the hospital. You've got your regulatory and accreditation. You have your running a sterile processing department. You've got an infection prevention program in the hospital that's usually outsourced by a different department. And here you are responsible in an ASC. You have IT, right?
00:09:53
Speaker
all of a sudden you're responsible for IT and, you know, gosh, more than often than not, that's really not your expertise. And then you talk about the quality program and risk management, and then you have physician peer review and credentialing, and then we haven't even gotten to the business side with contract negotiations and revenue cycle and billing and even just how to read a financial statement.
00:10:19
Speaker
So it's, it is just really, it's really overwhelming. And I guess the one thing I have to say is there's so much that you just can't do this alone. You've got to look in, look at your team and you've got to be able to all work together so you can work, build on your strengths. So you can be the best ASC that you can be. Absolutely.
00:10:48
Speaker
And do you think there are certain aspects of your clinical background that influence how you managed all those aspects of the ASC as an administrator? Yes, I think, you know, if you're coming from an OR, you've dealt particularly in the inpatient environment, you've dealt with having to think quickly on your feet and you're dealing with emergency situations and being able to prioritize
00:11:19
Speaker
So often a lot of that comes into, you know, like being organized and on some of those things. But then there's a lot of leadership skills that you just, you know, some of them are inherent and some of them are not. And so you need to, you know, you need to be able to build on those. Absolutely. That's great.
00:11:42
Speaker
One of the things we like to do on the podcast, Beth, is make sure we're kind of given practical tips and tricks to our listeners. That's what our listeners really like to engage with and learn from. And so, you know, if you are speaking to that section of the audience that is familiar with the operating room, right, like you mentioned, knows how to run the operating room and is maybe new to or thinking through, hey, how would I apply this skill set or experience to managing a whole surgery center?
00:12:13
Speaker
What would be a couple of tips and tricks that you'd provide? You know, I think I would come away, I've been thinking this
Tips for ASC Administrators
00:12:19
Speaker
with 5 tips. So the one thing I'm going to just build on what I just said is involving your team, because you can't be successful alone. And you've got to look at the big picture and, you know, be transparent. And so looking at your team's strengths,
00:12:38
Speaker
and delegating those, you know, you may see someone that's gonna be great to be a great infection preventionist and empower them to take that role on and thrive there. Same with QAPI. You might have someone who's really techie and, you know, you plan to pull them into some of the IT stuff or gosh, some of this stuff that is really outside your expertise, you might wanna outsource and bring in an industry expert to help with that.
00:13:08
Speaker
But you can't do it alone. You need to build your team. And I think something that's incredible with that is it builds camaraderie. It builds ownership amongst the staff to have the ASC succeed. And in these days where we're having staffing challenges, it also helps to build longevity.
00:13:34
Speaker
folks that want to stay and not leave the surgery center. So that's tip number one. Which is increasingly important today. Exactly. Right? Which everybody's having the staffing shortage and challenges and how do we kind of motivate and inspire staff members to stay. So I always circle those tips that help with kind of employee retention and satisfaction. So that's great. So number one, involve your team. I think the second one, supporting the industry.
00:14:02
Speaker
There are so many factors out there that are affecting your surgery center and your operation that you have no control over, your regulations, your reimbursement, things around staffing regulations. So you need to support your industry that's kind of working with those challenges. For example, ASCA is working every day to work with Medicare.
00:14:30
Speaker
and the federal regulations. And that's hugely impactful for your ASC. And then if you're in a state, you're gonna have different state regulations affecting your surgery center. So you need to be part of the community that is supporting your industry because you don't wanna have something happen to you that's gonna negatively impact your center. And I think the pandemic brought to light
00:14:59
Speaker
how important it is to be plugged in to both of those different areas because things were changing every day. And you have the federal stuff coming down in the state. And if you weren't plugged into your industry experts or your associations, you were left behind. And frankly, you're probably maybe in a bit of floundering. So it's just huge to be successful.
00:15:29
Speaker
That's number two. My third one would be, and this one seems easy, but I find a lot of folks don't take this step is to know your standards and regulations and just make them really accessible. You should download the CMS Interpretive Guidelines Appendix L and have it on your computer and read it.
00:15:53
Speaker
And know it. Know where things are said. You don't have to memorize it, but you need to be familiar with it. You need to know your accreditation standards and read that handbook. And then depending on what state you are, what those regulations look like. Because I'm going to guarantee you that you're going to have a patient, a physician, or a staff member challenge a certain policy or procedure that you do. And you have to know where those regulations are so you can
00:16:23
Speaker
be able to, you know, either defend or maybe even change a policy. But you'd be surprised that folks just, you know, they don't take that time. And if you're a paper person, take it to a print, take the file to your printer and have them printed and bind it so you can write all over it and, you know, but just make sure you're familiar with it.
00:16:52
Speaker
You want me to keep diving in my next, my next tip number four is take advantage of networking. And that's kind of, I'm going to build on my experience when I joined CASA. It was just so huge for me and you just really need to connect with others in the industry and they're going to support you being successful. So that means attending meetings, being part of online communities and forums and using their experience to help you.
00:17:22
Speaker
One thing I found in the ASC industry is there is this inherent philosophy to help each other. Even across competitive boundaries, folks will say, no, you know what, this didn't work, this worked. And that's been my experience through CASA, is people really like to share, share what's working in their centers or their experiences.
00:17:52
Speaker
So it's a huge resource to help you be successful. Isn't that great when you have an industry or community that has that culture? Because I think what it does is helps everybody learn faster, learn from each other and kind of raise the overall bar. Exactly. And I just feel like it's kind of unique to the ASC world. There is kind of this bond there that, and like I said, you may be a competitor, but there still is this
00:18:21
Speaker
innate ability to want to share information. Yeah. And I'm curious there, Beth, you mentioned being a part of the community and online forums for networking, best practice sharing. Any online forums that you found to be particularly helpful or useful to bounce ideas? Well, I'm going to be selfish here. I know CASA has an online community.
00:18:44
Speaker
where, so for us, for California centers, they can share their questions and concerns and get those answers. Aska has one as well. And I mean, and what's great about those is they're so industry focused that you can ask something really in the weeds and they're going to get it. So those would be the two I would recommend. And I guess I just have one more tip and
00:19:13
Speaker
It's just to seek all the opportunities, distinguish your surgery center and yourself, take it to the next level. So there are a lot of opportunities out there for additional certification. So, you know, I would research becoming CAS certified. I would research having your infection preventionist, if it's you or if it's someone else in your facility becoming CAPE certified.
00:19:41
Speaker
There's other awards in the industry for ASEs, like Newsweek, just published the best ASEs across the country, and it's pretty cool to be on that list. And then, you know, CASA has an annual award that we do for ASEs, and our members just have to, you know, apply and demonstrate how they're meeting these pillars. And I just, it's very cool opportunity to,
00:20:10
Speaker
Motivate your staff. Get that additional recognition from your ASC. And, you know, it helps on the marketing side as well. Yeah, that's fantastic. So I love those five tips. Just to summarize to make sure I got them, because I was scribbling notes there. I heard, number one, involve the team. Number two, be a participant and support the overall industry.
00:20:38
Speaker
Three, know the rule book. Four, take advantage of kind of networking opportunities and opportunities to share best practices across peer groups. And then five, seek out ways to differentiate and distinguish your center and yourself. Did I get those right? Absolutely, yep, that's it. Fantastic, or listening to more of that. No, that's it, I was just going to say, I think this applies to
00:21:07
Speaker
you know, someone new and just trying to, you know, navigate their way through or somebody that's been in the industry for a while, you know, you get so busy in your day to day operations. Sometimes you kind of, you know, you need to recenter yourself and just, you know, maybe think of some additional tips. Absolutely. So final question for you. And this is one that we asked all of our guests. What is one thing that our listeners can do this week?
00:21:37
Speaker
to improve their surgery. So it's I think this is an easy one. And I think it might surprise you and surprise a lot of centers. But I would say have your ASC if they have not joined, they need to join their local Chamber of Commerce. This is kind of like the easy button. And a lot of ASCs are missing out on this. They are providing essential health care in their community. And so you need to be tapped into your community.
00:22:06
Speaker
And what a great way to establish connections with business leaders in the elected officials in your community, your local council or supervisors who often go up the chain to the state or even the federal level. So huge connections, huge opportunity to build your leadership skills. And honestly, when they're gonna have
00:22:36
Speaker
conversations about health care in the community, now you're part of it. And it's just it's just a huge opportunity and so easy for your ASC that just, you know, a great marketing tool. Really? Yeah, we love, you know, listening out all these, these cheat codes. And from time to time, we'll share these out. So we kind of
00:23:04
Speaker
get the network and the crowdsource effect going. So thank you so much, Beth, for joining us. Really enjoyed this conversation today. Thank you for having me. It was my pleasure and really appreciate all that you guys are doing.
00:23:21
Speaker
As always, it has been a busy week in healthcare, so let's jump right in.
Healthcare News Recap
00:23:26
Speaker
The behemoth that is Google has had its eye on the healthcare industry for some time now, and this month they officially launched a new suite of digital tools around medical images.
00:23:37
Speaker
Billions of medical images are scanned each year, and every time they are, they rely on human intelligence and experience and interpretation to tell us what the image means. The goal with Google's new medical imaging suite is that you'll be able to leverage technology and automated intelligence, AI, to uncover any insights from the images, which allows you to hopefully arrive at diagnoses faster and more accurately,
00:24:06
Speaker
And it also will hopefully lower the workload on radiologists. So as with any new tech, we have plenty of early adopters and plenty of skeptics. But in one use case, Hackensack Meridian Health in New Jersey is working on building AI algorithms that can predict metastasis in patients with prostate cancer.
00:24:28
Speaker
So, while this new piece of tech hasn't made its way to ASCs just yet, it's something we'll want to keep our eye on and start to think about what use cases we might have for it someday in the near future. I know thinking about bringing AI to something as personal as healthcare can be a little intimidating, but the human element is not going anywhere. It's just a matter of can we use AI and other technology to improve efficiencies.
00:24:56
Speaker
That is called Google's new medical imaging suite.
00:25:01
Speaker
In our second story, according to NBC News, flu season is off to an early start this year. Typical flu seasons ramp up in December and usually peak in February. But this year, the CDC is starting to see numbers spike now, which is about two months earlier than usual, which is why some people are kind of sounding the alarm and getting concerned. So why is this happening? Last year, flu vaccines were down.
00:25:29
Speaker
as were flu cases, as people were still distancing and wearing masks and following COVID protocols. And unfortunately, vaccine fatigue is a real issue right now. So flu vaccinations are still trending down in 2022 as well, which is not helping the issue here.
00:25:50
Speaker
So all of that combined makes this the perfect storm and is setting us up for a severe flu season. So I know I don't have to remind anyone in the ASC industry the importance of getting a flu vaccine. So just consider this more of a reminder and a heads up if you haven't heard this yet. And just keep your guard up and stay safe this flu season.
00:26:12
Speaker
Our third story, if you have not seen this yet, Newsweek released a list of America's best ambulatory surgery centers. So according to the Newsweek editor in chief, Nancy Cooper, rankings are based on recommendations by medical professionals and a careful analysis of the facility's performance data.
00:26:33
Speaker
So in their rankings there are 510 ascs and that made the list and just to give you context there are a little over 6000 medicare certified surgery centers in the country so 510 made the list.
00:26:49
Speaker
And we have 39 different states represented. As you can imagine, California, Texas, Florida, and New Jersey had the most recognized centers, which tracks considering they have the most centers to choose from. But congratulations are in order for 90210 Surgery Medical Center located in Beverly Hills, California.
00:27:12
Speaker
for being ranked as the number one ASC in the country and Gramercy Surgery Center located in New York City was actually ranked number two. So that's a huge accomplishment and everyone who is recognized should be extremely proud of their achievements here.
00:27:29
Speaker
And as always, we'll put the links to all these articles in the episode show notes. So feel free to go look at it. You know, I threw it in an Excel spreadsheet and you can kind of sort and play around with different stuff. They also have different groupings where you can sort by region and state and stuff like that. So again, I will put this link in the show notes so you can go directly there and see the full list of the 510 centers.
00:27:57
Speaker
And to end our new segment on a positive note, Lehigh Valley Health Network released a 30-minute documentary on YouTube a few weeks ago called The Strength to Heal, which features four nurses who share their stories about what they experienced during the pandemic.
00:28:16
Speaker
So I know that probably doesn't sound like a good news story right off the bat, but here's why I think that it is. This documentary is extremely well done and while yes, it is definitely a heavy subject matter, I think what they do a really good job of is bringing awareness to what healthcare workers went through and how much of a lasting impact healthcare workers had on their patients and their families.
00:28:43
Speaker
and that non-healthcare workers can have a glimpse into what it was like and how grateful we should all be for those who helped us get through the thick of the pandemic. So definitely check it out. It's incredibly well done and the stories are so moving. And again, it's called The Strength to Heal and it's on YouTube. And we'll put the link in the show notes too.
Closing Remarks
00:29:05
Speaker
And that news story officially wraps up this week's podcast. Thank you as always for spending a few minutes of your week with us. Make sure to subscribe or leave a review on whichever platform you're listening from. I hope you have a great day and we'll see you again next week.